Jennifer Gill, who manages outreach efforts for the Metro Bicycle Roundtable meetings, was present for her first meeting as the new BAC representative for CD 1. Council Member Ed Reyes, long known for his strong support of bicycling, made a great decision in appointing such a capable and progressive supporter of bicycling. We wish Jennifer the best in her new role on the BAC and hope that she can bring new energy, ideas, and gravitas to the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee.

Below the fold, we’ll get into highlights of the meeting: an update from Sergeant Krumer, discussion of the LA County Bike Plan, more specifics on the BAC Liaison Program, the BAC’s future website, an update on City Planning’s Bike Parking Ordinance, and the effort to bring a universal bicycle registry to Southern California.

Update from Sergeant Krumer

First up was the estimable Sergeant Krumer giving his customary update on behalf of LAPD:

A busy Sgt. Krumer (via Biking in LA)

The investigation of the Critical Mass incident in early 2010 where an officer was witnessed kicking a bicyclist will soon be completed. While Sergeant Krumer couldn’t speak on record about the investigation, he did say that some allegations couldn’t be substantiated and some could.

County Bike Plan

A map section of LA County's proposed bike plan (via Streetsblog)

Next was an update on LA County’s efforts to craft a new bike plan. It was noted by the BAC that County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky has been the driving force behind the County completing the new bike plan.

The new plan will have the potential to create a lot of bicycle infrastructure connections in the Santa Monica Mountains and to the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) as well as South LA and other unincorporated areas of LA County. The BAC members discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the plan, and urged people to comment on the plan to push it in the right direction.

BPIT Updates

Liaison Program

This was the heart of the BAC meeting. As mentioned in our interview with Jay Slater, the BAC Liaison Program is meant to embed BAC members with different agencies and organizations so the BAC can have a more direct and effective impact on bike projects in the future. A big kudos goes out to new BAC Chair Jay Slater; his efforts secured the approvals and contacts amongst the 11 liaison organizations. The liaison positions so far are:

LADOT Director – Jay Slater will take on the liaison position of working with LADOT interim General Manager Amir Sedadi. Jay was very complimentary of Amir and was optimistic about the relationship they had already forged.

LADOT Bike Program – Kent Strumpell will be a liaison to LADOT Bike Program Senior Coordinator Michelle Mowery. Glenn Bailey suggested that a second liaison position be created to work with LADOT Bikeways engineer Paul Meshkin.

City Planning Department – Jonathan Weiss will be a liaison to City Planning with Claire Bowen as his primary contact.

Bureau of Street Services – Aubrey Provost offered to be the liaison to the BSS.

LAPD – Glenn Bailey, who already works closely with the LAPD bicyclist task force, will take the liaison position for the BAC. Jeff Jacobberger will be a second liaison to LAPD to support Glenn.

Sheriff’s Department – Jennifer Gill volunteered to work with the Sheriff’s Department. Because LA County Sheriffs patrol Metro, Jennifer already has some familiarity with their organization.

Metro – Jennifer Gill also took on the liaison position for Metro, with the Metro Bike Program’s Lynne Goldsmith as her contact. This made sense, as Jennifer already works at Metro.

Caltrans District 7 – Aubrey Provost will take this liaison position.

LACBC – David Wolfberg will serve as the LACBC liaison, with Jennifer Klausner as his contact. There was also discussion about bringing on a second liaison for the LACBC, due to their wide-ranging work.

Mayor’s Office – Jeff Jacobberger will serve as the liaison to the Mayor’s Office, with John Brady in the Mayor’s Office of Transportation as his contact.

City Committees – Jay Slater and Jeff Jacobberger are taking on the city’s committees, which will include the PLUM Committee, T-Committee, and the Public Safety Committee.

Building & Safety – Ron Skarin will be the liaison to the Department of Building and Safety, as he used to work there and has great familiarity with the department.

Bike Plan Implementation Team (BPIT) – Jay Slater and Jeff Jacobberger will be permanent liaisons to the BPIT, but additional BAC members may be included if new projects brought to the BPIT are in their districts.

There was discussion afterward about creating additional liaisons, especially with Recreation & Parks, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and a liaison to the bike co-ops of greater Los Angeles.

BAC Chair Jay Slater touted the increased level of access the liaison program will provide. As an example, he cited a trip he took that morning with BAC member Brian Frobisher to Council Member Jose Huizar’s office. There, they spoke with the Council Member about extending the York Boulevard bike lanes to Figueroa Street and installing bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard from Eagle Rock Boulevard to Figueroa Street as part of a multi-pronged traffic calming effort. Jay also referenced a productive meeting he had with Council Member Tom LaBonge about ensuring river access along the NBC/Universal project.

Website

Jay Slater announced the beginning of work on a new website for the BAC. Two BAC members versed in computer programming will soon launch a site to host the minutes and agendas of BAC meetings, subcommittee meetings, and meetings with liaison contacts. The site will also be fully linked to City resources and the various contacts throughout the bicycle community.

Bike Parking Ordinance Update

Rye Baerg was on hand at the BAC meeting to give an update on City Planning’s draft of the Bicycle Parking Ordinance. Planning recently held a hearing to take public comment on the ordinance, and planning is still taking comments on the ordinance until April 18th. You can still submit your comments via email to Tom Rothman. The ordinance itself is scheduled be heard before the Planning Commission on April 28th.

Bike Registry

Last was Ted Rogers, the dedicated writer of Biking In LA, who came to the BAC to speak about the Bike Revolution bicycle registry system. Ever since the City of LA dropped their requirement to register bicycles, a gap has opened up in being able to report and recover stolen bikes. If bicyclists in LA were to register with Bicycle Revolution (which is free to use), stolen bikes could be tracked across state and national boundaries. Because the Bike Revolution system isn’t tied to any one city, it could become a regional bicycle registration system. Long Beach and Santa Monica will both soon be dropping their registration requirement, making a regional registration system even more of a possibility. At the very least, you should make sure to write down your bike’s serial number and file it away with all your important documents.

Next Meeting

The BAC meets next on June 6th. LADOT Bike Blog will be there to cover it.